Thaumatin and monellin are flavor active and flavor enhancing proteins. Thaumatin, as shown by thaumatin II, has a wide variety of uses as a flavor enhancing agent. The octapeptide known as “delicious peptide” or “beefy meaty peptide” (BMP) is reported to enhance flavor and produces an umami and sour taste, especially in beef. Monellin is recognized as a potently sweet protein. Recent work indicates that the 19 to 26 amino acid region of thaumatin is a possible active site for sweetness determination. (Slootstra et al. 1995). Substitution of this region with other amino acid sequences, particularly those having some homology with this region of thaumatin and believed to affect taste, may alter the properties of thaumatin to provide new and useful function.
Recent work with monellin indicates that the lysine located at position 4 in the A chain is a highly likely candidate for involvement as a component of the receptor interaction site of monellin. (Suami et al. 1996). Subsitution of this region with other amino acid sequences, particularly those having some homology with this region of monellin and believed to affect taste, may alter the properties of monellin to provide new and useful function.